Improvement in cupola-furnaces



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANNES A. LINCOLN, OF NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO ANNES A.LINCOLN, JR, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CUPOLA-FURNACES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 50,769, dated October31, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANNES A. LrNooLN, of Norton, in the county ofBristol and State of Massachusetts, have made a new and useful inventionor improvement having reference to cupola or other furnaces for theheating, refining, and melting of metals or metallic ores; and I dohereby declare the same to be fully described in the followingspecification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of whichFigure 1 denotes a front elevation, Fig. 2 a top view, Fig. 3 alongitudinal section, and Fig. 4 a horizontal section, of acupola'furnace used in melting iron.

The furnace to which my invention is applicable may be constructed inany ordinary manner, and be either with or without a grate, ascircumstances may require. The common cupola-furnace, such as isrepresented in the drawings, has no grate, the charge of fuel restingdirectly on the hearth, or what is usually termed a sand bottom.

The special objects or purposes of my invention are the prevention ofthe formation of clinkersabove thegrateorsand base, athorough combustionof the gases of the fuel, and, fina ly, the obtention of a refined andpurer heat for the melting of the metal.

The nature of my invention consists in a pcculiar arrangement of a steamand air induction apparatus with reference to the bottom or sand base orthe grate of a cupola or other furnace for the refining or melting ofmetals.

I am aware that steam and air have been blown into furnaces for thepurpose of facilitating the combustion of the fuel thereof, in whichcase they have been introduced into the ash-pit, and beneath the grate,and passed up through the latter before coming in contact with the fuel.In no cupola-furnace having a sand base have blasts of commiugled airand steam ever been allowed, to my knowledge, torushintothefuelspaceabovethebase. Neither am I aware that asteam-induction apparatus has been so combined with the tuyere of afurnace as to mingle jets of steam with the air received into thetuyere.

In the drawings, A denotes the body of a cupola-furnace, of which a isthe tap-hole, and

B B the tuyeres. The tuyeres are arranged on opposite sides of thefurnace, and somewhat above the base, hearth, or bottom 1) thereof, andeach of them opens into the chamber 0 of the furnace, by means of apassage, (1. \Vithin each of the tuyeres, which consists of an elongatedbox, there is arranged a curved pipe, 6, having its side next to thefurnace perforated with numerous jet-holes. This pipe is to be closed atits two extremities, and at its middle it is to communicate with asteam-conduit,f, which enters the tuyere, and serves to support thejet-pipe c therein. The air-blast pipe of the tuyere is shown at g. If,now, we suppose the pipe fto communicate with a steam-generator, and thepipe g to discharge air into the tuyere, the steam will fiow from theopenings of the jet-pipe, and, mingling with the air, will be forciblyblown into the furnace or its charge of fuel, and will have the usefulefi'ects hereinbefore stated.

I do not claim the coin mingling of steam and air, nor the introductionof the same into the ash-pit of a steam-boiler or a reverberatoryfurnace, whereby such steam and air before gaining access to the fuel ofthe furnace would be caused to pass through the grate of such furnace,in which case the bars of the grate would so interrupt the introductionof, or so separate the currents of, steam and air as to cause clinkersto form directly on the bars or over the grate, such clinkers operatingmore or less to prevent the admission of steam and air into the fuel.

I claim as my improvement for the purposes specified The arrangementofthe steam-jet and air or blast apparatus so as to cause the commingledcurrents of vapor and air to enter the furnace at a point above thegrate or fuel-base without first going through it, meaning, specially,to claim a cupola-furnace as made with the tuyeres and steam-j etscombined together and arranged with respect to its hearth or fuel-basesubstantially as specified.

ANNES A. LINCOLN.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr.

